Can Microsofts MSN Web portal become all things to all people?
Talking to Yusuf Mehdi, the Microsoft executive in charge of figuring out the company’s portal strategy, you get the feeling that’s certainly no stretch. Mehdi, who recently launched MSN Video and MSN Premium Internet access, also has plans to incorporate a next-generation search engine, a music download application service similar to Apple Computer’s iTunes and a social-networking service. And that’s just what we know for now. Mehdi, who has quickly climbed the management ranks since joining the company 12 years ago, earned his stripes during the Internet browser wars of the 1990s, when he played a major role in helping Microsoft’s Internet Explorer outstrip rival Netscape Navigator. A big part of Mehdi’s current work is figuring out how to capitalize on the resurgence of the online advertising market. We think that the sun has not set on even the first day of the search opportunity. MSN wants to roughly quadruple its share of the total media-spending business in the next five years.
